Bruins, Capitals Set to Battle

BOSTON, MA – After the Washington Capitals 4-1 win over the New York Rangers, the Ottawa Senators 4-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils and the Florida Panthers 4-1 win over the Carolina Panthers Saturday, the Boston Bruins will face the Washington Capitals in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

With the win, Washington (42-32-8, 92 points) tied Ottawa (41-31-10) in the points column, and won the tie-breaker to take control of the seventh seed, while the Senators finish eighth.

After the Panthers (37-26-18) win, Florida finished the season with 94 points to secure the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference and the Southeast Division title.

The Boston Bruins (49-29-4, 102 points) clinched the Northeast Division title and No. 2 seed back on April 1 when they beat the New York Rangers 2-1.

This year, the Bruins have faced Washington four times, and the Capitals have won three of them.

In the last two games of the series, both at the TD Garden, the Bruins lost the 3-2 in a shootout March 29 and lost 4-3 on March 10.

In the shootout loss, Tim Thomas made 21 saves, while he made 19 stops in the game before that.

In the second game of the season series, the Bruins pulled out a 4-1 road victory on Super Bowl Sunday.

Again, Peverley, Seguin, Marchand and Lucic scored in the win and Thomas got the start in net this time and turned away 35 shots in the victory.

“They’re a team I think defensively that has really tightened up their game,” Bruins Head Coach Claude Julien said about the Capitals earlier this year. “We see them doing what most teams do around the league now, collapsing and overloading the one side of the ice in the D zone and certainly that structure is there.

“We know they’re a good offensive team... and that’s been their strength for years.”